Supplemental Reading and Pioneers Resource: Interview with Lady Pink

Lady Pink is Ecuadorian by birth, raised in Queens, New York. She is one of the most respected female muralists as well as one of the first female graffiti writers to attain international fame. Currently she is co-owner of PinkSmith Designs with her husband with works ranging from street corners, museums, and art galleries to nightclubs. Lady Pink began her artistic career by producing illegal murals on the New York City subways in the late 1970’s, an underground career that blossomed in the hip-hop pop cult art movement of the 1980’s. Lady Pink appeared as the only featured female artistic in the 1982 Fashion Moda show in New York City that was the first, and at the time, the only graffiti art style exhibition. Her canvasses today are featured in collections such as those of the Whitney Museum the MET, and The Brooklyn Museum in New York and the Groningen Museum of Holland. Lady Pink’s integration into the graffiti art culture, her role as a muralist, and her romance with fellow graffiti writer at the time, Lee Quiñonez, became the model for the film ”Wild Style” in which she played a starring role. Her work has illustrated the union between graffiti, its legal representation of aerosol art and the commercial aspects of gallery exhibition.

A friend and colleague made the connection for me, and the thought that I might get to interview Lady Pink personally was my sole motivation to go to New York City. All contact seemed abstract and covert. I arrived to New York and touched base receiving only abstract directions to take the R line into Queens with a phone number to call once I arrived at the designated station’s payphone. I followed through receiving a second set of street names and numbers. As I walked I contemplated where I was going to meet her. Was I walking to a coffee shop, a house, an apartment, or a wall? What I would say, how might I approach my page and a half of notes, and which questions seemed most important if she seemed rushed and needed to “wrap up.” I rolled through my head how many women she has provoked to just do art, regardless of where, how, or whether the canvas had permission. After all she was my own source of inspiration. I thought of all the boy graffiti writers that must have had a crush on her, and how many of their muses she must have ignited.

When I arrived I found a small white house in front of me, Lady Pink opened the door with a little dog in her arms, a cup of coffee in her hand, and a Kool cigarette between her lips. It was that day in August of 1998 that I recorded this interview with her – in which both graff girl Mickey from Amsterdam and Pink’s husband Smith briefly appear – an interview that aims to go far beyond the walls and photographs in telling her story.

Course Summary:

The course covers the historical trajectory of hip-hop from its inception in the post-civil rights era of New York City during1970’s in the form of four elements - break dancing, rap, turntablism, and graffiti art - to its contemporary identity as a global youth phenomenon. The historical development of hip-hop is accompanied with the analysis of scholarly works ranging from contemporary academic research to old-school rap lyrics. Literature, lectures, legal cases, films and multi-media projects individually analyze each element and question the four-element paradigm that defines hip-hop today. The course looks at the role gender, class, and race play in the use of hip-hop as a tool for social change while simultaneously acting as a corporate marketing device. Throughout the semester the class aims to re-structure stereotypes and offer a deeper perspective into how hip-hop defines the identities of individuals as well as the consciousness of masses.

Anthropology of Hip-Hop breaks down the course into nine distinct sections: (1) Legendary Roots, (2) “Hip-Hop!” the Four Elements and Pop Culture, (3) The New Revolution & Gangster Rap, (4) Rap and the Law, (5) Race & Class Politics of Hip-Hop, (6) Turntablism & Production, (7) Bling Bling: Hip-Hop Consumerism, (8) Gender/Sexuality, and (9) Global Hip-Hop. Guest speakers and local hip-hop artists are incorporated into the course so as to contribute to an ongoing dialogue between academia and the community.

Dr. Melisa “Emetrece” Riviere

Dr. Melisa "Emetrece" Riviere is an anthropologist and Latina hip-hop audiovisual director, producer, and scholar. In 2010 she received her doctorate in Anthropology from the University of Minnesota as a MacArthur Scholar. Her research on the globalization of hip-hop and its local expressions between Cuba and Puerto Rico utilized music and audiovisual production as a unique disciplinary methodology. The same year, in Havana, the multimedia productions from her dissertation received the prestigious Lucas Award from the Cuban Institute for Radio and Television.

The artistic name Emetrece originated many years earlier in 1991 as a nom d' plume for anonymous publications by Melisa Riviere, written out as M13. her name containing 13 letters and with the initials MR could be scripted in such a way to appear as an M13. She later altered the writing of her name as "Emetrece" so as to identify with her Latina origin and target the Latino community. The word strategically includes 4 letters ‘E,’ each of which metaphorically relates to an element of hip-hop – DJ, graffiti art, break dance, and lyricism/rap.

Dr. Riviere has worked with Songo Sounds, Time Machine Squad, and The Lab Studios in Puerto Rico, as well as The Cuban Institute of Music, the Agency for Rap, La Fabri K, the Hermanos Saíz Association, Casas de Cultura, and Real70 Studios in Cuba. Her work on either island includes documenting hip-hop conferences, festivals, and live performances; leading keynote talks and pedagogical workshops; and producing musical recordings as well as video clips with Anónimo Consejo, Tego Calderón, Doble Filo, Los Aldeanos, SieteNueve, Intifada, Silvito el Libre, Escuadrón Patriota and Obsesión amongst others.

As a pioneer hip-hop scholar Dr. Riviere teaches courses on hip-hop for Anthropology, Global Studies, and History departments as visiting faculty at various universities and college campuses. She has published in a wide range of academic journals and popular culture magazines. Her audiovisual ethnographic publications have appeared in albums released by major music labels such as Atlantic Records and showcased in film festivals such as the Langston Hughes African American Film Festival.

In the role of co-founding director of the annual international summit titled “B-Girl Be: A Celebration of Women in Hip-Hop,” Dr. Riviere advocates for the empowerment of women and youth within the art movement. Merging academia with entrepreneurship, in 2003 she founded Emetrece Productions, an audio-visual production company and independent music label that focuses on "edu-tainment" to cross pollinate both fields and offer a new approach to the cultural industries

Dr. Riviere’s two decades of multimedia production, hip-hop education and “raptivism” has received the attention of media giants such as Reuters, Associated Press and CNN.